How I Lost My First Magen David by Liz Marlow

How I Lost My First Magen David

It had been my Bubbe’s,
about the size of the tip
of my pinky, nothing
to notice except that it
was my sun—mornings,
it could guide me home.
Though on birthdays,
friends had given me glass
bead or plastic charm necklaces
and bracelets, this was too dainty
to be costume. Its chain
had been free
with a golden heart locket—
a throwaway placeholder
in the gray felt jewelry store box—
meant to be changed out
for something fancier, thicker.
My mom didn’t think this star
pendant needed a sturdy chain—
after all, thicker gold chains cost more—
I was just a child. As if belief
were enough to keep the chain
from breaking, during swim practice
at the JCC, diving into the pool,
engulfed in splash, it would float
to bump my chin, nudging,
הנני—here I am.

*

Liz Marlow is the author of They Become Stars (Slapering Hol Press 2020). Additionally, her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Best Small Fictions, The Greensboro Review, The Idaho Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She is the editor-in-chief of Minyan Magazine and a coeditor of Slapering Hol Press.